Trump Is Bringing Us "Dangerously Close"
To autocratic behavior
Above is a photo I took last week, the child’s caregiver is just out of frame. Let’s save our democracy for this little girl.
This morning, Heather Cox Richardson wrote about all the implications of these masked ICE raids we have been witnessing. I thought I would cross-post it, but I decided to try to summarize it below. If you want to read the entire post, it is here. I think it is so important what she writes.
The Trump administration is masking ICE agents when they snatch people off the street. They claim it’s because assault of ICE agents are 413% higher; they use a percentage to make it seem true. But Philip Bump of the Washington Post reports that assaults on ICE agents is down 20% in the last year. ICE would not comment on their statistics.
It also gives the administration the opportunity to claim that the threats agains ICE agents are from government officials in sanctuary cities.
Bump said, “[W]e should not and cannot take ICE’s representations about the need for its officers to obscure their identities at face value.” Following his article’s appearance in the Post, the Department of Homeland Security upped the number of “assaults” and wrote on social media, “New data reveals that ICE law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations.” Homeland Security wrote,
“Make no mistake, sanctuary politicians are contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE. This violence against ICE must end.”
In the past few weeks, several legislators were arrested by ICE: Senator Alex Padilla was arrested for trying to ask Kristi Noem a question at a news conference. ICE contended that he lunged at Noem and didn’t identify himself; the video of the incident shows that neither are true. Charges were dropped, but not after the DHS put out statements that Lander assaulted ICE officers. In an interview yesterday, JD Vance blamed “left wing radicals” for Padillo’s detention, and called him Jose Padillo. “Once again seeding the idea that a Democratic lawmaker must be a criminal, Vance called the California senator “José Padilla,” using the name of a man convicted in 2007 of conspiring to commit murder and fund terrorism.”
Some say what is happening is desperation, that Trump knows he is losing. I hope that’s the case, but I also hope it doesn’t get worse before it gets better.
Below is a portion of Heather’s interview with Barack Obama last week. Speaking about autocracy, Obama said,
“We are not there yet completely, but I think we are dangerously close to behavior like that. Let’s not go over that cliff, it will be hard to recover.”
Anyway, it’s Saturday night and I hope you can enjoy your evening. Thanks for being here.
With respect to all, "dangerously close" to such behavior was a while ago -- some days he's already THERE.
in 20 years what will that little person think of what America was like under Trump? what will they be taught in school? will their parents and grandparents speak of the protests? what legacy will the ICE units leave? will their descendants admit to them?